A website is a great branding and marketing tool for any small business. It is also essential for a business strategy to ensure its brand, location and products are found in search engine listings.

For businesses that do not yet have a website, their goal for having a website in 2012 should be:

• Discovery: Make sure your business can be found on the internet by users searching online for a business in search engines, maps and local
• Engagement: Save your customers time by providing them an easy way to get information on your business.
• Sales: Get sales and leads from engaged visitors
• Service: provide information and tools for website visitors who have already made the purchase

2012 will be the year of both the website owner and website visitor. Businesses will rediscover the marketing power of their websites. Users with an extensive choice of information on the internet will give their blessings to simply designed sites with easy to find information. Search engines will bless sites that are updated more frequently with better rankings. Social media integration will help websites spread their information far and wide and savvy website owners will use analytics to continuously tweak their websites based on visitor behavior. Entry pages, bounce rate, click paths will become easier lingo to follow and use for business purposes.

2012 will be a call to action to those business owners who used the build -it-and-forget it policy for their websites to wake up and get the online marketing and brand engine going. If you don’t believe me, search Google for your competition or look how your customers are reviewing you on social sites like Yelp.

Start 2012 by shaping and revamping your brand online. This is the only way you will be able to establish and grow a positive presence online and convert traffic to your website into profitable business. Start by doing the following:

1. Get online in style (if you haven't) - let a professional web design company develop an impressive and interactive website for your business. Don't do it yourself, its not worth it.

2. Get a Facebook Page and Twitter profile for your business (and keep it active) - in 2012 traffic to websites will be boosted by traffic from these two sites. Even search engines like Google have started taking activities from these two sites very seriously while ranking companies online.

3. Undertake Internet Marketing Seriously - just like the normal makering, internet marketing deserves a plan and a budget. How do you expect to get clients online if you don't market your business online? Search Engine Marketing is the cheapest and most effective way to get flowing business from online visitors.

4. Monitor your Return On Investment - Track traffic to your site using free and comprehensive tools like Google Analytics. See who visits your site and what they do while there.

5. Finally, think of your business reputation. Identify positive and negative comments from people and even your clients that are hidden inside millions of websites, Facebook, Twitter and Blog posts. Know all these through online reputation management.